The Royal Rumble is an annual gimmick pay-per-view (PPV) produced every January by the World Wrestling Federation (WWF, now WWE) since 1988.

Featured matches on the undercard were the 1996 Royal Rumble match which was won by Shawn Michaels, who last eliminated Diesel to win the match, making it his second straight Royal Rumble win; Goldust defeating Razor Ramon for the WWF Intercontinental Championship; and The Smoking Gunns (Billy Gunn and Bart Gunn) defeating The Bodydonnas (Skip and Zip) to retain the WWF Tag Team Championship.

The 1996 Royal Rumble marked the first pay-per-view appearance of Steve Austin, here using the name "The Ringmaster," a blond-haired master ring technician and the featured wrestler in the "Million Dollar Man" Ted DiBiase's stable.

As "Stone Cold," Austin—who began his first major feud, with Savio Vega, under "The Ringmaster" moniker and continued it after changing his gimmick—went on to become one of the WWF's biggest stars and helped usher in the promotion's Attitude Era.

– Winner ^ This was King Mabel's last appearance until he returned on June 30, 1998, for a one-off match with Ken Shamrock on Raw Is War.